


Hiding Place

by ottermo



Series: As Prompted [75]
Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Post S3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 12:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15388947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ottermo/pseuds/ottermo
Summary: Sam and Sophie are taking their avuncular duties very seriously. That is to say, they’re teaching the baby to play hide and seek.





	Hiding Place

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Synth Recharge Challenge on tumblr - just a bit of senseless fluff because I can :’)

It was significantly more difficult to find adequate hiding places, now that Sam was in his new phase body. He had adjusted to his increased size with more gainliness than a human child going through a growth spurt might have, but that didn’t change the fact that he could no longer crawl between the wall and the sofa without shifting the sofa forwards, and Sophie was sure to notice that.

Of course, strictly speaking, both of them were a little too old for hiding and seeking, now that Sophie was ten years old and Sam was three years conscious - but it was the school holidays, and while Mattie and Mia attended a meeting of Laura’s appeal committee, Sophie and Sam had been tasked with keeping the baby amused for the afternoon. It had seemed only natural to introduce their small niece to the important Hawkins-Voss family tradition of hide and seek.

Or at least, it had seemed only natural until Sophie had burst into the living room proclaiming agitatedly that, “Mimi’s disappeared!”

Sam stepped out from behind the curtain and frowned. “I thought she was counting with you.”

“She was,” Sophie said, “But she must have run away while I had my eyes closed. I’ve called and called for her.”

Sam regarded her with interest. “Why? She isn’t going to come out. She’s playing hide and seek.”

“Stop being clever,” Sophie said, “And just help me look.”

They searched high and low in every room, with Sophie checking even the most ridiculous places, just on the off-chance that an eighteen month old child might have found herself suddenly able to scale a wall to climb inside a medical cabinet, or squeeze behind a radiator. Sam made no comment. Sophie, who still had the tendency to believe absolutely everything Niska said, had been waiting for Amelia to develop some kind of mystical superpower ever since the day Mattie had given birth. So far, nothing was forthcoming. Unless the child had, just today, learned to turn invisible? Sam decided not to suggest it.

Once the house had been thoroughly investigated, and even Sam was beginning to think seriously that they might have actually lost Mimi permanently, Sophie suddenly shrieked and pointed out of the kitchen window. “The trampoline!”

The two of them raced outside, and Sophie bounded over to the trampoline to scoop her small niece up from on top of it.

“How did you get up there?” Sophie half-scolded, half-cooed. “You could have fallen down!”

It was at this point that a blonde head became visible on the other side of the frame, as its owner straightened up from crouching behind the trampoline.

Niska glared accusingly at Sophie. “We were playing peekaboo.”

Amelia smiled in agreement and stretched out her arms towards Niska. “Nissa hiding,” she said, by way of explanation. “Say boo.”

Sophie raised her eyebrows. “I see. You got bored with our game and ditched us for peekaboo? What happened to hide and seek?”

Niska circled the trampoline and took Amelia, who seemed very happy to go to her. “She was bored. You were just standing there shouting numbers with your eyes closed, so I rescued her.”

“I was _counting_ ,” Sophie said emphatically. “That’s how you play hide and seek. One person counts and the others hide. Only we’d already had our turn of hiding so I was showing Mimi the counting bit.”

“Onetwotheefivesixseben,” said Mimi obligingly.

“And they were going to come and find me,” said Sam. “Except we haven’t played since I was in my old body, and there aren’t as many good places I can fit in now.”

“It’s fun, though,” said Sophie. “We’re allowed everywhere except Toby’s room. But he’s at Renie’s today so he’ll never know. So really we’re allowed everywhere.”

Niska fixed them both with a very serious look, as if considering something.

“All right,” she said finally. “I’ll play.”

Sophie giggled. “Bagsy not it!”

“Bagsy not it either,” said Sam, with a little more decorum. He watched as Sophie scampered back to the house, then looked up at Niska. “It means we’re not counting.”

“I know what it means,” said Niska, with a slow blink of her interconnected violet eyes. “I have a direct link to a slang directory.”

“So you also know that when you finish counting—”

“ _Ready or not, I’m coming to get you_ ,” Niska said sharply, “Yes, I’ve found a complete set of the rules.”

“Count a bit slower than Mimi does, though,” Sam suggested.

“Onetwotheefivesixsebeneighnine,” said Amelia, with a conversational air.

“Why won’t she say the number four?” Niska wondered.

“Nobody knows. She never does.”

“She ought to be of high intelligence,” Niska continued, evidently concerned. “She’s the first ever hybrid child, she’s supposed to be—”

“A _baby_ ,” said Sam, matter-of-factly.

“An important baby,” Niska corrected.

“Still a baby.”

With that rather underwhelming parting shot, Sam began to make his way into the house.

Niska looked back at the baby in her arms. “Listen and learn, Pipsqueak,” she said. “Numbers are important.”

Amelia looked back at her with similar solemnity. “Four,” she said, very deliberately.

Niska grinned, despite herself. “Maybe there’s hope for you yet.”


End file.
